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Sunday, 1 December 2013

Jim's column 30-11-13

What a week for the Sky Blues! Flying high after a
seven-match unbeaten run in the league and three successive home games in which
they had scored three goals, they collapsed to two heavy home defeats to
Tranmere (1-5) and Rotherham (0-3). Both games left many City fans frustrated
as neither scoreline reflected the games at all & flattered their
opponents.

The Tranmere defeat was the heaviest home reverse since West
Brom won 5-0 at the Ricoh in an FA Cup fifth round tie in 2007-08 against a
City team managed for just one week by the joint management team of Frankie
Bunn & John Harbin. Ray Ranson unveiled Chris Coleman days later. The last
time the Sky Blues had such a heavy home league defeat was back in 1998-99
against Newcastle when despite Noel Whelan giving them an early lead the
Geordies hit five in reply. Alan Shearer gave French defender Jean-Guy Wallemme
a nightmare afternoon, scoring twice with the other goals coming from Stephen
Glass, Dabizas & the late Gary Speed. I seem to remember that the scoreline
flattered Newcastle somewhat.

Only on three occasions have City had heavier home league
defeats than that.

1919-20 0-5 v Tottenham

1980-81 0-5 v Everton

1989-90 1-6 v Liverpool

In each of this week's games City were undone by two
strikers at the top of their game. Tranmere's Ryan Lowe has been a thorn in
City's side before. Last season he scored for the MK Dons in our 3-2 win at
Milton Keynes and in 2011 he netted twice for Bury at Gigg Lane in the annual
first round exit from the League Cup. Last Saturday he netted a hat-trick, the
second in consecutive games against City following Wells' three for Bradford
City the previous Sunday. Then on Tuesday Rotherham's Nouha Dicko, making his
debut on loan from Wigan, scored a superb goal & had a hand in the other
goals.

Several readers wondered if the Sky Blues had ever conceded
hat-tricks in consecutive league games & I could find one instance of it.
In 1925-26 City, playing their solitary season in Division Three North, lost at
home to Chesterfield (2-4) and away to Bradford Park Avenue (0-3) in successive
weeks. Chesterfield's Jimmy Cookson netted three goals on his way to scoring 44
goals for the season, at the time a Football League record – not bad for a
converted reserve full-back! A week later Ken MacDonald scored all three goals
as the Bantams crashed at Park Avenue, who went on to finish runners-up in the
division.

Lowe became the first player to score a hat-trick against
City at home since Nottingham Forest's Kevin Campbell on the opening day of the
1996-97 season.

Today City travel to Milton Keynes with a following of fans
expected to be around 7,000. Last season City took just under 5,000 fans there
& they saw a fine 3-2 victory with the team twice coming from behind. As I
have written previously there were no official figures for away followings
until the last five or so years, so any figures for away followings are
estimates. I believe however this weekend's Sky Blue Army at Stadium MK will be
the largest for a league game since that vital relegation match at Wimbledon in
1996. An estimated 7,000 Coventry fans trekked to Selhurst Park that day to
watch two Peter Ndlovu goals virtually ensure safety. There have been bigger
followings for Cup games with around 12,000 travelling to Old Trafford six
years ago & 9,000 going to the Emirates last season. Let's just hope the
team can give the incredible following at MK something to shout about.

City's average away
following after today's game will be around 2,250, their best for many, many
years and currently only bettered this season by three Football League sides.
Leeds United have by far the best away following with an average of over 3,200,
City's League One rivals Wolves are averaging 2,700 and Nottingham Forest
around 2,500. In other words more fans are following City than 22 Championship
sides including Leicester, Birmingham, Derby & Sheffield Wednesday. City's
average is slightly skewed by the fact that they have had most of their local
derbies and the final figure is likely to be somewhat lower. The number of away
fans is obviously boosted by the large number of fans who won't travel to
Northampton& therefore away trips
are there only chance of watching their team.Today, by the way, Leeds have sold 6,800 tickets for their game at
Blackburn.

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About Me

I have supported Coventry City FC since my first visit to Highfield Road in 1962. I am the club's official historian and have a regular column in the Coventry Telegraph. Here I would like to enable my readers who can't buy the paper to access my columns and comment.